


Religious Imagery

by ElenaCee



Series: Devil's Trap [6]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Established Relationship, F/M, Girls' Night, Hurt Lucifer, Hurt/Comfort, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-12 21:54:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10500201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaCee/pseuds/ElenaCee
Summary: Chloe does her best to keep Ella out of the loop, but when it turns out that the local Dominicans aren't done with the Devil yet, events conspire to force her hand.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Also known as the one in which I fail the Bechdel Test.  
> Apologies to all Dominicans out there. I promise I'll stop after this one.  
> I may have misrepresented Ella's canon skillset, but hey, it's a divergence from canon anyway, so I hope you all can forgive me.

“Hey, Ella,” Chloe said, raising her voice over the din in the bar, “how d’you s’ppose angel wings work?”

It was a testament to the fact that the Tribe were well on their way to finishing their fifth round that Ella wasn’t fazed by the question at all. Or maybe the fact that they had been talking about all sorts of crazy subjects all night was playing a part as well. The possible functionality of angel wings wasn’t even the strangest thing they had covered so far.

Linda, Chloe noticed, threw her a sharp glance, though.

“It’s all religious imagery, Chloe,” Ella said, never losing her habitual happy smile. “Wings on human bodies wouldn’t work. It doesn’t make scientific sense. But it doesn’t have to. That’s the beauty of it.”

Chloe nodded, glad to note that the room remained steady despite that movement. She was a little buzzed, but not drunk yet. Just the way she liked it.

She also refused to feel guilty for the odd choice of conversational topic. So Lucifer was on her mind a lot. So shoot her.

Half-formed thoughts about maybe learning how to massage his cramped wing muscles to help him relax more made her persist. “Yeah, but, Ella. Just for the sake of argument. How would angel wings work if angels were, you know, real?”

“You mean, anatomically?” Linda interjected. Chloe noticed her exchanging glances with Maze, who was busy laying waste to a whole bottle of whisky all by herself, looking none the worse for wear, damn her. The perks of being a demon, Chloe supposed.

This caught Ella’s interest. “You mean theoretically? Theoretically anatomically?” She giggled.

Chloe nodded again, less cautiously this time. “Yeah. Just suppose it’s all real for a minute.”

Ella put on her thinking face. “Well, theoretically, right, they’d be like dragon wings - which are also not real, right. I mean, they got arms, and then they also got wings. That doesn’t happen in nature. Well, unless you’re an insect. You either got wings, or you got arms. Can’t have both. Like, birds don’t have arms. Their arms are their wings, or rather, their wings are where their arms would be if they had them. Right?” She blinked at Chloe happily.

Chloe was impressed that Ella had gotten all that out without slurring or losing her thread. Clearly, she was still way too sober. “So,” she said, “that mean that angels have two sets of arms? Yeah?”

“It means,” Linda picked up, “that angels have a different anatomy than normal tetrapodes.”

Right. Chloe remembered that Linda was also a medical doctor. And in the know about Lucifer. And probably had invested some thought into all of this, too.

“Exactly,” Ella said, beaming. “They’d be, like, hexapodes. Animals with six limbs. If they really existed. Which they may or may not, in fact, do.”

“Like, how?” Chloe insisted, her nebulous thoughts about shia-tsuing the pain out of Lucifer’s back becoming more tangible. “How is their anota-... their anatomy different?”

“Muscles in their backs,” Maze piped up. “Lots and lots of muscles. Pretty hot.” She downed another glass of whisky.

Chloe threw her a dark look, hoping like hell that she was referring to Amenadiel and not to Lucifer. Or, Heaven forbid, both.

On second thought, who was she kidding? Of course she was talking about both. They’d had millennia of shared history. And Maze had known Lucifer when he’d still had his wings.

Chloe decided it was time for another drink before she went too far down that particular road. Even if the bit about ‘hot’ muscles was definitely the right track.

“They would have to have extra wing shoulder joints,” Ella was saying thoughtfully, “between their normal shoulder blades, so they can move the wings independently from their arms. Maybe another set of wing shoulder blades. And the tendons and muscles to move them. Really strong, to achieve lift and actually fly.” She frowned. “Would be really complicated and probably not feasible. Which is why it’s just a religious image.”

Chloe nodded. Complicated. But she needed to know where and how… A thought struck. “Would all that show up in an x-ray or MRI scan?”

Now, Linda was giving her a really odd look.

She raised her eyebrows in a her best innocent expression. “Well, would it? Theoretically.”

“It should,” Linda said, sounding serious. “It would also lay waste to the theory of evolution and throw doubt on natural science as a whole.” To Chloe’s trained ears, her voice contained a warning undertone.

Oh yeah, Ella and the bible and the necessity of doubt in order to believe. Not a good idea to tell her it’s all real. Right. Check.

“Or,” Chloe said, backpedaling, “it would prove that angels exist, and they are extraterrestrial beings. I mean, they existed before life on Earth did, right? According to the Bible. So they exist independently of earth life.”

Linda relaxed. “I suppose.”

Maze exploded into giggles. “You two!” she said, pointing at Chloe and Linda with her empty glass. “Hilarious!”

“What?” Ella said, smiling happily and looking from one to the next. “What’s so funny?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Linda said, giving Maze a look, then looking a question at Chloe.

Chloe shrugged, emptying her glass. Lucifer’s Dad knew that Maze could find amusement in the strangest places.

“Nothing,” Maze said, pouring herself another one.

Ella slapped her shoulder. “Hey, no keeping secrets from the Tribe!”

Okay, Chloe thought, time to change the subject. “Guys,” she said, blurting out the first thing that crossed her mind, “next round’s on me. I’ve been having the best sex of my life.”

Oh. Look what had come out of her mouth. But not surprising, considering the current topic and how Lucifer was on her mind so much.

Oh well, damage done. She shrugged and gave the bartender a signal.

“Whooo!” Ella howled, raising her glass in salute, drawing the attention of everyone in the bar and not giving a damn.

“I’m well aware,” Maze said, while Linda nodded in a way that made Chloe suspect she’d known about her and Lucifer, too.

Of course. Linda was in the loop on the whole Devil thing, after all. Lucifer had probably told her about this change in his personal life during one of their recent sessions. In detail, if she knew him, which she did. She felt her face grow hot.

“Right on!” Ella said, looking even more exuberant than she normally did. “Look, I know it’s girls’ night, and no talking about guys on girls’ night, but… Details, man!”

Chloe’s blush deepened. “I’m not drunk enough for details, Ella. But… he’s good.”

Linda nodded in agreement.

So did Maze. Of course.

And then some imp - definitely not the Devil, because he was currently doing the rounds in Lux - made Chloe add, “Devilishly good.”

Linda chortled. “Oh yeah.”

Maze merely nodded, like a connoisseur.

Ella looked from one to the next. “What am I missing? Again? Girls?”

Maze put her (empty again) glass down onto the bar counter with a clonk. “What the hell. You’re the only one here who hasn’t had sex with the Devil, Ella.”

“Maze!” Chloe and Linda said at the same time.

The demon looked from Chloe to Linda and back. “What? It’s not like it isn’t an honor, you know.”

“And,” Ella interjected, “it’s not like he’s really the Devil, you know.”

Maze scoffed.

“Well,” Chloe found herself saying, “someone could do an MRI scan on him, right, Linda? Then we’d be sure.”

Linda nodded. “There are certainly worse ways to learn.”

Ella stared at them. “You guy’s aren’t seriously serious, right?”

As fun as this was, Chloe reminded herself, they’d trigger a meltdown if they told her. Ella needed her doubts. She couldn’t have certainty. It’d be disastrous.

“Oh no, no,” she said quickly. “We’re not. Lucifer’s obviously not really the Devil. Can’t be, right? The Devil doesn’t exist. It’s all, what did you call it, religious imagery.”

Maze scoffed again. “Coward.”

Linda, however, refused to hop onto that particular train. “A good physiotherapist,” she stated with the careful enunciation of the inebriated, “could probably feel the extra joints and muscles even without a scan. If they knew what they’re looking for.”

Ah, well, Chloe thought. Nice try.

But Linda, bless her currently sloshed heart, was right. Chloe had definitely felt something extra in Lucifer’s back when she touched his scars, and she wasn’t even a physiotherapist. Which was why she had brought up the subject of the wings in the first place.

“Wait,” Ella said, smiling widely. “You guys are having me on. Right? That’s it, right?”

“Absolutely,” Chloe said, deadpan. “He can’t really be the Devil. It would mean nobody’s watching over Hell right now. If he’s up here, I mean. Can’t be.”

This seemed to reassure Ella, flimsy though it was. “But, man, he’s really into his role. I’ve never seen him slip even for a second.”

“Besides,” Linda said, still lagging behind a bit, “if the Devil really were here on earth, he wouldn’t be working for the police, now would he. He’d be leading some satanic cult somewhere, plotting takeover of Heaven or something.”

That rubbed Chloe the wrong way. Operation Keep Ella Out Of The Loop was on temporary hold while she rushed to her Devil’s defense. “Why should he be doing something like that, though? Maybe he’d really just, you know, want to take a break from all the torturing? Enjoy sex, drugs, and so on here on earth, have a good time? Feel good for a change?” And fall in love, and be loved in return, and maybe, just maybe, find redemption?

Oops. She really hoped she hadn’t said that last bit out loud.

Linda was looking at her oddly. “That’s not how he’s described in the Bible, though,” she said, with a significant look at Ella. “The Devil is the embodiment of all evil, right?”

“Actually,” Ella said slowly, “I think he would be doing exactly what our Lucifer is doing. Seek out the wicked and put the fear of God in them. Throw in a little temptation while he’s at it. It’s all in character.” She shook her head admiringly. “Which is why he’s so damned good in his role. He doesn’t overdo it with the fire and brimstone. He’s totally believable. And, ooh.” She fanned herself. “Yeah.”

“And,” Chloe said, raising her glass, “mine.”

They clinked their glasses and drank.

Chloe’s phone buzzed. Raising one finger at the girls (and demon) by way of apology, she took a look, hoping it wasn’t a new case. Not at this hour. Not at her current level of intoxication.

Oh, text from Lucifer.  _ How goes girls’ night? _

Smiling, she typed,  _ still upright. no fights yet. _

_ \- You’re doing it wrong, then. _

_ \- it’s girls’ night. we don’t do that macho bullshit. _

_ \- What, is Maze not with you? _

Her smile widened.  _ point. _

“Hey,” Ella said. “Stop it with the sexting, girlfriend. We’re right here.”

“Sorry,” Chloe said, typing,  _ gotta go. love you. _

“Chloe!”

“Sorry. All yours.” Catching the heart emoji Lucifer had sent her, she gave them a bright smile as she put her phone away.

Just in time, as it turned out, for karaoke.

 

* * *

 

The next case arrived in Chloe’s metaphorical in-box the next day when she had just recovered from her hangover.

A man had been found dead in an abandoned church. Preliminary results indicated that he had died from electrocution. Chloe’s stomach lurched when she read the address - the same church the Dominicans had trapped Lucifer in only two weeks ago. And electrocution absolutely fit their M.O.

She thought hard about whether she should let her partner know about this case. Though he never talked about it, the incident had to still be fresh on his mind, and she didn’t want to reopen that wound. Two wounds, now, both connected to that church. No. She’d go view the evidence alone and then decide whether she’d need his help on this one.

When she reached the crime scene, though, her first glance at the victim convinced her that there was no way to keep Lucifer out of it. He already was involved.

The dead man, tall and slender with dark hair, in his mid thirties, was a dead ringer for the Devil, so much so that Chloe’s first thought was case of mistaken identity. The victim had been offed by someone who had had a bone to pick with the owner of Lux over a deal, perhaps.

On second glance, she realized that the vic was lying right inside the Devil’s Trap circle. He also had a number of strange symbols branded onto his forehead that looked like some of the symbols in the circle.

No. Clearly, something more sinister was going on here than just someone with a grievance getting revenge.

Ella, looking disgustingly cheerful and un-hangovered, was peering intently at the symbols on the victim’s forehead. “Guy was still alive when that was done to him,” she commented. “Messed up, right? Also, this looks like writing, but it’s no language I know, which doesn’t say much, I admit. But the letters aren’t Chinese or Japanese, or Cyrillic, Malay, or Hindu. And that’s where my expertise ends. Oh, and it’s not Sindarin, either. I’ll have to check with my contacts.”

Chloe took a photo of the man’s forehead to send to Lucifer, leaving it to him whether he wanted to become involved. “Let me try my contact first, Ella,” she said as she hit “send”.

Her phone rang not ten seconds later. “Where is that from?” Lucifer asked without preamble.

Chloe explained about the dead man and the symbols, concluding with, “Also, we’re in that church. You know,  _ the _ church.”

“Bloody hell. Didn’t I hear Amenadiel warn those Dogs to stay away from meddling in divine affairs? And why didn’t you tell me we had a new case, Detective?”

“Well, I sort of didn’t want to drag stuff up for you.”

He snorted. “That’s just feelings. This is murder, and I was clearly supposed to be the victim. I’ll be right there.” The line went dead.

 

* * *

 

Fifteen minutes later, Chloe heard the familiar rumble of Lucifer’s Corvette outside and went to meet him at the church door.

The Devil scowled at the building in deep distrust. “Number of times I entered a church within the last year: four. Number of times disaster struck: three. Two of which happened right here.”

She took his elbow and gave an encouraging smile. “Nothing will happen this time, I promise.”

“No, because it already did.” Still scowling, he allowed himself to be dragged inside, where he made a beeline for the hubbub of activity near the altar.

As they were approaching the Devil’s Trap pentacle and the dead man in its center, Chloe put a hand on Lucifer’s shoulder to stop him. With the heel of her boot, she quickly disrupted the lines of the circle. “Just to be safe,” she said with a brief smile.

Lucifer threw her a warm look, then walked across the white lines, studiously ignoring them and focusing on the dead man with an expression of disgust mixed with regret.

“I assume you can read that?” Chloe asked him softly, conscious of half of Homicide swarming around taking evidence.

“I’m the Devil, I can read everything,” he replied in that off-hand way he sometimes had. “But yes. This is my native language. Or it would be, if the author hadn’t mangled the grammar.” He went down on his haunches, inclining his head to one side as he looked thoughtfully at the victim’s face.

“What does it say?” Ella asked, who had sidled closer. “The Internet claims that the letters might be Enochian. Then again, it’s the Internet, so.”

“It says,” Lucifer replied without looking up, “‘you are gone, Devil’. What I assume it’s supposed to mean is, ‘begone, Devil’.” He shook his head. “Poor chap, first getting mistaken for me and then leaving this mortal plane with a screwed up imperative on his brow. And yes, it’s Enochian.”

“Dude,” Ella said. “What’s your source? I couldn’t find a match in any of the texts that are on record. Brief search, I know, but… You just pulled that out of your... - out of thin air. And please, no method actor bullshit.”

“You’ll have to take my word for it, Ms Lopez,” he said haughtily. “Enochian is the language of all Celestial beings; that’s how I know. You’re free to believe or disbelieve my ‘bullshit’. I don’t have to prove anything.”

To Chloe’s ears, he sounded more defensive than usual. Maybe the place and circumstances were getting to him more than he let on. “Guys,” she interjected, “it’s good enough for me. We’ll go with it.”

Lucifer looked somewhat mollified at that.

“Go easy on her,” Chloe whispered to him. “She can’t believe you’re really the Devil. It might destroy her.”

“Yes, well, I’m not going to lie about this, or about anything,” he whispered back. “It’s clearly those Dogs again, and that phrase tells us that they’re still after me. We can’t lose time waiting for a human to translate it, if that’s even possible. They will probably try again soon on some other poor sod bearing a resemblance to me.”

“But even with the phrase, we still don’t know where to look for them.”

“There can’t be that many Dominican friaries in the area.”

“Yes, but this church is clearly their base of operations. If they find a new victim, they’ll come back here.”

“Jeez,” Ella said from behind them. “I thought the time for your whisper fights was past.”

They both turned to give her a look, then moved away towards a more secluded corner of the church.

Lucifer turned to face Chloe. “If you really want her to remain in the dark, don’t let her look too closely at the pool of blood she’s standing on. It’s Uriel’s blood.”

Chloe looked at the circle, then back up at him. She wanted so badly to ask him whether he was okay, but she also didn’t want to actively remind him why he might not be, so she stalled and said nothing.

“Also,” Lucifer went on, “if the Black Friars are still organized like they were in the Middle Ages, there’ll be more than just a handful of them behind this. We can do boring stakeouts of this church all we like and grab everyone who comes here to do their atrocities until the angels come home to roost, but there’ll always be more of them, waiting to take the place of their brethren. And they’ll keep coming after me, and after humans that happen to look like me, now that they’ve seen me. They’re on a mission.”

“Right. So, what do we do?”

“We have to take the fight to their hive, which will most likely be one of their friaries.”

“And do what? Arrest them all?”

He shrugged. “If you like. My plan would be to find out who did this and punish them -”

She nodded. “And arrest them. Fine with me. But what about -”

“... and to put the fear of Dad in the rest of them and tell the whole lot to cease and desist.”

“Well,” Chloe said thoughtfully, “that may actually be the only thing we can do. I can’t arrest them just for being religious zealots. That’s not a crime. We’d have to prove for each single person that they have murderous intent.”

Lucifer held out his arms. “You saw what they tried to do to me. That is their intent. In a way, it always has been. They’ve never really been a danger before, what with me being immortal and still having my wings and all back then, but they have always intended to destroy me. One might argue that this is one of the  _ raisons d’être _ of their little order.” His voice had risen, drawing the attention of Ella and a few other cops.

Chloe stepped closer to him and put a hand onto his chest in an effort to calm him. “Lucifer, the point is that the law doesn’t acknowledge the existence of the Devil. Trying to exorcise you isn’t a crime.”

He nodded at the Devil’s Trap and the dead man inside who looked so much like him. “Killing humans is, though.” He sighed. “Chloe, look. Them coming after me on general principle is fine. We’ve been playing that game for hundreds of years. Them versus me; it’s sort of expected of us. It’s even been fun, in a way. But this is serious. Things have changed since I’ve come topside this time. They’ve never actively targeted me like this before, with Devil’s Traps and abductions and bloody brandings and even resorting to murder. But I will not stand by while innocent people start getting caught in the crossfire. That is where I draw the line.” His eyes flashed red, just for a second.

She realized then that he had already decided what he’d do. The Devil was on his way, and all she could do was tag along and try to keep him from going overboard.


	2. Chapter 2

“That must be it,” Chloe said, pointing at a low, sprawling complex of buildings nestled in the hills.

Lucifer made an affirmative sound. “Idyllic. And proof that too much opportunity for contemplation of Dad’s mysterious ways leads to evil acts.”

She smiled at his scowl. How often had she heard him say things like this before, when she had still been in the dark about his true identity? Back then, she had thought it eccentric and a little crazy. But now she knew where he was coming from, all she felt was deep affection and the need to hug him.

But she resisted. “Community of Tau-Rho,” she read from the maps app on her phone. “No reviews. No visitors allowed. No phone numbers. Small community apparently, twenty-five friars and a bishop as of last year.” She looked at Lucifer’s profile as the Devil drove his car closer to the building, allowing herself a moment to admire the proud arch of his nose. “So, what’s your plan?”

He gave her a brief glance. “Thought I’d walk in, wait until the screaming has died down, you arrest the guilty, then I give the rest of them my thoughts on their attitude. What’s yours?”

She shrugged. “Well, this area is outside of LAPD jurisdiction, and we still don’t have a warrant, so legally, I can’t do anything.”

“You’re not stopping me, though, are you.”

She smiled. “You’re the Devil. I couldn’t stop you even if I wanted to. But what I can do is follow you in and do damage control, and arrest any guilty person who happens to identify themselves.”

He gave her his devilish grin. “Business as usual, then.”

 

* * *

 

His car parked, Lucifer sauntered straight up to the main gate while Chloe trailed behind, keeping a lookout. The arrival of the vintage Corvette would not have gone unnoticed in this secluded area, and indeed, Chloe thought she could see movement behind the small windows overlooking the front of the main building.

Just as Lucifer reached the gate, there was a metallic sound, like a lock bar sliding shut.

The Devil scoffed. “Seriously? Trying to lock me out? You manage to use Devil’s Traps on me, and then you rely on lock and bloody key to keep me away?”

He put his hand onto the gate. There was a series of clicking, snapping, and sliding sounds, and the surprised yelp of a voice.

The gate swung open, revealing two men in black and white habits staring at Lucifer with expressions of controlled terror.

“Hello,” Lucifer purred, gleeful grin firmly in place. “We’re here to see some friars about a murder, and the rest about complicity. I’ll take your confessions in the chapel.”

The men crossed themselves. “You’re not allowed to enter, Satan,” one of them said in a valiant effort to not sound terrified, a young, fresh-faced friar with freckles and yellow-blond hair.

Lucifer’s grin got wider. “Really! Let me guess, you’re new here. Quick update, darling, I don’t need your permission. I’m not a vampire. What’s next, crucifixes and wooden stakes?” With that, he walked across the threshold.

Chloe followed in his wake, flashing her badge, not really minding that it barely made an impression. She was more than content to let Lucifer do his thing.

“She can’t come in here, though,” the blond friar added, nodding at Chloe. “She’s a woman.”

“Sorry,” Chloe said, allowing herself to get swept along with the moment, “can’t keep me out, either. I’m the Devil’s Consort.”

Lucifer looked at her, smiling widely. “Indeed you are, my love.” He turned back to the friar. “I must say, I’m surprised you recognized that she’s a woman, Freckles. Hasn’t it been ages since you’ve last seen one?”

The two friars retreated before them, the one who had remained silent turning to run deeper into the building.

“Now, you, Freckles,” Lucifer addressed the blond Dominican. “Go collect your fellow dogs and tell them to assemble. I have something to say to the lot of you sexually repressed miscreants, and I’m only going to say it once.”

The young man stared at him, open-mouthed.

“Go!” Lucifer shouted, dropping the smile, eyes flashing.

The man ran.

 

* * *

 

It was an assembly of frightened men huddling together in what Chloe had learned was called the refectory, each friar clutching a crucifix or a rosary, or, in many cases, one of each. Chloe had taken a position near the double door, ready to intercept anyone who tried to flee.

Lucifer stood on the raised dais, clapping his hands. “Right! Attention, Canes Domini.” His dark eyes scanned the twenty-odd men. “You should know who I am, but in case anyone here was too busy fornicating their fellows to pay attention, my name is Lucifer. Morningstar.”

There was scattered whispering.

“That’s right, the Devil, the Adversary, Satan, and so forth,” Lucifer went on. “The one some of you recently tried to send back to Hell. Yes, stupid idea, didn’t work. I had thought that you lot got the message that you’re to cease and desist this nonsense, imparted as it was by my dear brother Amenadiel, the First of my father’s Angels. But no, seems like at least some of you are a bit hard of hearing. Must be all that abstinence. Clearly not good for you.”

He paused, grinning at the assembled friars with unholy glee.

Chloe, too, was looking around. If they were right, and the perpetrators really were in this room, it should be possible to identify them by … Ah. One of them was obviously sidling towards the door. She readied her handcuffs.

“While that was evidently futile, some of you have now sinned in earnest,” Lucifer went on. “An innocent man is dead. Happened to look a lot like me, just not quite as handsome. Oh yes, there are murderers in your midst. And at least one of you mangled the Celestial language trying to send me a rather macabre message. Isn’t it ironic? You pious humans, pretending to live by my father’s laws, resorting to murder and mutilation in an attempt to get at me. Tarnishing your immortal souls. In trying to force me back to Hell, you bought your own tickets.” He paused again, black eyes sweeping the room.

By now, Chloe had identified three friars who were really acting guilty. They were exchanging glances and shuffling closer to one another.

“And you know what? I’m the Devil. I punish the guilty, the murderers. And I do believe that I’ve come to the right place.” Lucifer raised his hand, pointing at those same three friars, shooting Chloe a look.

She nodded, handcuffs in hand.

**“Murderers, repent!”**

Lucifer’s voice seemed to have acquired added subsonic harmonics that rattled Chloe’s diaphragm.

All around her, the friars winced and cringed. The three guilty ones, though, screamed, eyes wide, falling over in terror as they scrambled to get away from Lucifer.

It was child’s play to cuff them, but even as she did so, Chloe realized that the situation was getting out of hand.

The men were no longer standing passive. A couple of voices began to chant something in what Chloe believed was Latin. There were scattered sounds of other hectic activities all over the room that she couldn’t make out. Some men, though, were definitely throwing something at Lucifer.

“Seriously?” she heard Lucifer say. “Holy water, and, what, salt? What do you take me for? A lowly demon? What part of ‘I’m the Devil’ didn’t you understand?” He drew a breath.

**“ _You will cease this nonsense._ ”**

This time, the entire assemblage went down on their knees with the force of the Devil’s glamour, gasping and crossing themselves. Chloe was glad she was immune.

She was in the process of finishing putting her cuffs on the third suspect when she felt a touch at her right hip. Whirling, she was barely in time to see one of the friars raise her gun towards Lucifer, an expression of rapture on his face. A shot rang out just as she was tackling the man to the ground, wrestling her gun out of his hand and holding him at gunpoint.

When she turned back to Lucifer, he was staring down at a spreading pool of red on his chest.

He’d been shot. Chloe thought her heart might stop.

Then Lucifer’s eyes met hers. He was still upright, but barely. Even across the distance that separated them, she could read the hopeless certainty in his eyes, could see the blood in one corner of his mouth. His wound was low on the right side of his chest, probably fatal. He only had seconds of life left.

She stepped back, her back to the wall behind her, gun raised. “Nobody move!” she yelled. “Lucifer,  _ the Devil is immortal! _ ”

For a terrible second, nothing happened, and Chloe feared that it was too late, that he was hurt too bad to do what he needed to do to heal himself. Then, to her relief, he dropped his glamour, smooth human skin and nearly black hair giving way to his bald, red-scorched Devil form.

Chloe could feel the friars’ collective horror spread through the room, like a bolt of electricity.

A bare second later, Lucifer had shifted back. The bloodstain was still on his chest, but he straightened once more, standing tall. His eyes went back to Chloe’s, and he gave her a nod.

She sighed in relief.

“Right,” Lucifer said softly, almost gently, “you really are stubborn Dogs, aren’t you.”

He brought his hands together briefly as if to pray, then spread his arms, palms out.

White light filled the refectory, emanating like twin stars from Lucifer’s eyes and from his palms. It bathed everyone in its brilliance, growing brighter and brighter. Soon, the light was too intense to face directly; even Chloe had to avert her eyes.

And it was warm, like the sun.

Under its influence, all around Chloe, the friars relaxed from their horrified postures. Most of them remained on their knees, but not so much from fear anymore now, or from the need to protect themselves from the Devil’s wrath. Instead, there were sounds of wonder, and muttered expressions of disbelief, and some of self-reproach.

“Lightbringer,” someone whispered.

The word was taken up by the entire assemblage, and when the light had faded, all the friars were on their knees.

Lucifer stood, facing Chloe across a sea of bowed backs, an expression of confused amazement on his face. “Well,” he finally said, “not exactly what I set out to do, but I’ll take it.”

 

* * *

 

“I hope you can forgive us, Lightbringer,” the bishop said for the fifth time as he accompanied Lucifer and Chloe to the front gate.

“It’s not for me to forgive you,” Lucifer said, also for the fifth time. “You’ll have to take it up with my Dad. I don’t judge, I only punish.” He paused to catch his breath.

Chloe threw him a sharp look.

“But do get laid, for goodness sake,” he went on. “Might relax you and keep you from getting any more stupid ideas.” He was moving slowly, his normally elegant ambling gait carefully controlled.

Now that she looked, Chloe noticed that his breathing was shallow, his skin pale and clammy.

Throwing him another worried glance, her eyes fell on his back, the bespoke jacket smooth and whole, and she realized what was wrong.

No exit wound.

The bullet was still inside him, injuring him with each move he made, with every breath. And Chloe was near him, making him vulnerable.

As they reached the gate, the bishop said, “I assure you that there will be some serious re-thinking of the tenets, at least in this community.”

“Yes, yes,” Lucifer said, sounding strained. “Just don’t do it again, or I’ll come get you. Etcetera.”

“We really must be on our way now, Bishop,” Chloe interjected, taking Lucifer’s elbow, half to steady him and half to keep him going. “Oh, and your brethren will need legal representation.”

“I will take care of it. Farewell, Lightbringer.” With an inclination of his head, the bishop headed back inside.

In front of the main building, the three suspects were just being conveyed into the police car Chloe had called, arrested for murder pending an investigation. The one who had shot Lucifer had also been brought forward; he was going directly to trial.

Their work here was done.

Two steps into the courtyard, Lucifer came to an abrupt standstill.

Chloe looked at him, feeling an upsurge of worry at the sight of fresh blood in the corners of his mouth and on his lips. And he couldn’t shift to heal himself here, not in front of the cops.

Wordlessly, Lucifer reached into his jacket pocket and held the keys to his car out to her.

She gulped. He must be really in a bad way if he trusted her with his beloved Corvette. Taking the keys, she patted his forearm. “I’ll be right back.”

 

* * *

 

The drive back to LA was a nightmare.

Even with the passenger seat put back as far as it would go, Lucifer couldn’t get comfortable. Each slight bump in the road jarred him, causing him to grit his teeth and forcing sounds of pain out of him. After a couple of miles, he began coughing up blood. Worried, Chloe told him to shift into his Devil form and stay like this to minimize the damage the bullet kept causing, and to heal that which had already been done.

It helped, but it only was on option while they were still away from civilization.

Chloe drove as slowly as she dared, dividing her attention between Lucifer and handling the, to her, unfamiliar car, taking roads that were in good repair where possible and trying to avoid any bumps and potholes as far as she was able. As the area became more densely inhabited and the chance of being spotted increased, what with the convertible being open, Lucifer had no choice but to resume his human form, lying back weakly, now and then moaning softly.

“Should I pull up to let you rest?” Chloe asked. “I could go for a walk to get some distance between us if it’ll help.”

“No,” Lucifer forced out, coughing again into his hand that was red from his blood. “Let’s just get this over with before I get blood onto the upholstery.”

“Right.” She kept going, counting down the miles, throwing him worried glances. She wanted to take him in her arms, to at least hold his hand, but she needed both hands to drive this vintage car, and he needed to lie with his back straight.

That bullet had to go, like, yesterday. She’d need expert advice on what to do now. After a particularly bad cough from Lucifer, she dialled up Linda.

“I’m not qualified for surgery, Chloe,” Linda said after Chloe had explained the situation. “And from what you’re saying, there won’t even be an entry wound, which makes this really, really tricky. We’d have to x-ray him to even find out the exact location of the bullet in his body.”

“Let’s do that, then,” Chloe said, desperate. The pained sounds from Lucifer were really getting to her now. “Do you know anywhere I can take him?”

“I know somewhere I can ask,” Linda said, obviously thinking out loud. “I have contacts in a private clinic that has all the equipment. Very exclusive, very private. We could get all the scans we need there, and do the operation.”

She sighed, grateful. “That’d be perfect.”

“I’ll get back to you on that. But I’m still not qualified to operate.”

Chloe frowned, hunting her memory for people she trusted who also happened to be qualified surgeons and coming up empty.

“Ella is,” Linda said, apparently reading her mind. “She told me once that she does autopsies.”

“That’s right, she does,” Chloe said, “but she also doesn’t know about Lucifer. She’d be bound to find out that he’s not human.”

“Well, there’s no other option, Chloe. Any surgeon we go to for this would have to be told that Lucifer’s not human. This way at least it’d stay in the family.”

Chloe frowned unhappily, looking at the Devil next to her, jostled by every change of direction of the road, by every slight bump, hand clawing the leather upholstery in his pain. “Couldn’t we just give her an x-ray scan showing the position of the bullet and let her go ahead without telling her anything?”

“And hope she doesn’t notice extra joints and such?” Linda said. “We can try. She’s clever and observant, though. I don’t hold out much hope she’d miss something like that. Or, come to think of it, the fact that there’s a bullet and no wound.”

“Dammit. You’re right. We’ll have to tell her.”

Lucifer blinked his eyes at her. “Sure it’s worth it?” he asked weakly. “I like her. Wouldn’t want her to go mad on my account.”

“Well, what else can we do? You can’t stay like this.”

“Maze,” Lucifer said.

They were coming up on a red light that had two other cars waiting in front of it. He turned his face away from the one to their right to conceal the blood that was now staining his chin and neck.

“Lucifer,” Chloe said, “this isn’t amputation, this is delicate surgery. What if she kills you? She could, right?”

He nodded weakly.

“See?”

“That’s a no-go, then,” Linda’s voice said over the speakerphone. “Besides, she’s absolutely devoted to you, Lucifer. She wouldn’t raise a knife to harm you if there is the slightest chance of accidentally killing you. Ella is our only option.”

 

* * *

 

Linda had come through; the clinic would be able to provide everything they needed. However, bringing Lucifer into the building posed its own challenges. By then, he was barely able to walk, and he couldn’t very well assume his Devil form again surrounded by all these humans. In the end, Linda helped him walk inside after Chloe had driven Lucifer’s car to park some distance away, staying away for a while and making him immortal again in this way for the duration.

Half an hour later, Linda had produced three x-ray scans from three different angles of Lucifer’s chest, each clearly showing the position of the bullet. It had traversed his right lung and was lodged behind his shoulder blade. His wing shoulder blade.

“No way Ella’s not going to notice this,” Linda said, pointing at the pictures and the shadows of bones that shouldn’t be there. “Any freshman med student would see that that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”

Chloe, who had rejoined them when Lucifer called her, insisting that he was fine for now, bit her lip. Poor Ella. Her world was about to come tumbling down. “Linda, are we sure? Really sure?”

Linda looked at her, one bearer of the Secret to another. “In my professional opinion, Ella is strong. I don’t think that this knowledge will harm her in the long run. There’s a risk, I don’t deny that, but it’d be a bigger risk to involve someone we don’t know.”

“Right.” Chloe took out her phone. “I’m calling her.”

 

* * *

 

Chloe entered the room Lucifer was in, the one they had prepared for surgery. Linda was already there, setting up the last bit of imaging tech, muttering to herself about how long ago Med School had been.

She felt anxious and antsy, knowing that her proximity would keep hurting him. Still, all she wanted to do was to be with him and… well, do what exactly? Hold his hand? How would that help?

But for this to work, she would have to be here and make him susceptible to scalpels. And to the pain. God.

She directed her gaze towards the ceiling.  _ I really don’t get this. Why make him vulnerable when he’s with me? I get the me not being affected by him bit, but that? Doesn’t make sense. And You can’t even be excused by having been stoned when You had that idea. _

“How do you feel?” she asked Lucifer as she sat on the edge of his bed, not liking how pale and clammy he once more looked.

He had been forced to keep his human appearance, so the bullet had been aggravating the wound since Chloe had returned. Looking up at her from his supine position, he gave her a wan smile. “It only hurts when I breathe,” he said softly, trying to make light of it.

She rewarded him with a smile.

Just then, Ella blew in. “Hi!” she said, her usual cheery grin a little muted, waving at Chloe and Lucifer, and at Linda. “Right. So. Super-secret locale, super-secret surgery that apparently I’m the  _ only one in the world _ qualified to do.” She held up her bag. “I’ve come prepared, but….”

Linda put a hand on her shoulder, x-ray scans in hand. “We’re very grateful for your help, Ella. This is where the bullet is. We’ve set up imaging and every other technological aid known to man, or woman. Not saying it’s child’s play, but it’s definitely doable.”

Ella looked at the scans, then at Lucifer. She frowned. “Wait. That can’t be right.”

“Ms Lopez,” Lucifer said from the bed, “everything will be made clear to you, I promise.”

“For now,” Linda picked up, “we just need you to get that thing out of him.”

Chloe, who had heard the rattle in Lucifer’s lungs when he took a breath to speak, wordlessly took his hand.

Ella stared at them, then nodded. “Okay. Save Lucifer’s life first, ask questions later. Got it.”

 

* * *

 

The procedure took almost two hours.

Ella now probably held the record for performing surgery under the weirdest possible conditions - from needing to apply the painkiller and sedative via constant drip, to Chloe needing to hold Lucifer down when he  _ still _ came to briefly thinking he was being attacked, to not having an entry wound to guide her to the projectile, to encountering unfamiliar blood vessels in unexpected places, to inserting a tube into the incision at one time and keeping her eyes closed while Lucifer did something she wasn’t supposed to see to keep from dying on the table, to not being able to use blood for a transfusion because of, apparently, reasons.

For her part, Chloe had learned that she preferred facing armed murderers over watching Lucifer being cut open when she wasn’t even sure that the painkiller would take. She had also learned that Lucifer, confused from the effect of the sedative, was more likely to assume that he was being tortured than that someone might actually be trying to help him. On the plus side, she had learned that Lucifer trusted her, even barely conscious, when she held him and told him he was safe, and that she was even able to calm him down completely by putting her hand on his face and stroking it softly.

Finally, Ella held the bloodied bullet in her forceps, and everyone slumped in relief.

“Right,” Chloe said, smoothing Lucifer’s hair back from his forehead to touch her lips to it. “I’ll just go get your car, Lightbringer. Be back in half an hour.”

 

* * *

 

“All right, people,” Ella said, putting her shot glass down and looking from Lucifer to Chloe and Linda and back. “Talk.”

Lucifer, back to full health after Chloe had given him the distance he needed to heal himself, opened his mouth to reply.

Chloe put her hand on his. “Let’s… not spring it on her all at once, alright? Ella, how much have you seen?”

“But first,” Linda put in, “let me assure you that you’re perfectly safe. Nothing’s changed. Nothing’s going to change.”

Once again, Ella looked from one to the other and the next. “You guys are beginning to scare me.” She turned to Lucifer. “Just spit it out, man. Are you an alien?”

“No,” the Devil said immediately.

“Yes,” Linda said. “In a manner of speaking, he is.”

Lucifer looked at her, a picture of offended pride. “I am not an alien, Doctor. ‘Alien’ implies something unknown. I’ve known you since the model that first came out. And I’ve been very familiar to you all since the beginning of time, even if most of you get me wrong. Also, I refuse to be seen as something that would make Sigourney Weaver cry.”

“Guys,” Ella said.

“You’re still technically not of earth origin,” Linda insisted.

“No, earth and me are of the same origin, though.”

“Guys.”

“Remember our wing convo the other day, Ella?” Chloe said, taking pity on her friend.

“The one where you insisted and assured me that the Devil’s just religious imagery?”

“Hmhm. Well, that may have been deflection on my part.”

“He’s very real,” Linda said.

Lucifer grinned his ‘aren’t I awesome’ grin. “Indeed I am.”

Ella stared at him. “Dude. You’ve got wings. I’ve seen the bones and the joints in the imager.”

“I used to have wings, yes. Had Maze cut them off.”

“Cut them off?” Ella repeated. “How?”

“Demon knife, and just like you would do any amputation.”

“That’s not what I...” Ella fell silent. Then shook her head. “Okay. Not the point, anyway. Talk to me, dude. So you really are the Devil. It’s not just a role you play, right?”

Lucifer sighed. “Yes, I am, and no, it’s not. Why do you humans always assume I’m lying, or that I’m crazy? You go around searching for proof of Divinity, sanctify anyone who claims to hear angelic voices and such, but when I tell you the truth as the most competent authority on the subject, you dismiss me as a lunatic, or as a bloody method actor. It’s baffling.”

Briefly, silence reigned in the penthouse above Lux.

“Well,” Ella finally broke it, “I’ve seen the x-rays, and the imager was live, so it’s not something you can fake. And you are upright even though by rights you shouldn’t be.” Her voice sounded steady, but Chloe still thought she detected a slight tremor.

“I’m immortal,” Lucifer said glibly. He looked at Chloe. “Most of the time, anyway.”

Ella ignored that bit. “I just have one question.”

Lucifer looked at her, smiling in invitation.

“Why are you here? What do you… want with us?”

“That’s two questions,” Lucifer said.

Chloe elbowed him (carefully, because she couldn’t just ignore that he’d been bleeding from surgical wounds not two hours ago even if he could).

He sighed. “Very well. I’m here because I was bored in Hell, and I was curious about you humans, Dad’s little project. Hell doesn’t really need a Lord. It’s pretty much automated by now. So I’m free to enjoy myself up here. As for what I want - nothing. I’m not here to harvest souls or such, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Right.” Ella opened her mouth, breathing in and out a couple of times. Then she raised her empty glass in the direction of the bottle.

Lucifer re-filled it.

Ella looked at him, breathed again, and knocked back the whisky. Looked at him some more. “Right,” she said again. “This is gonna take some getting used to, dude.”

He raised his eyebrows as if expecting something more.

Ella did not disappoint. “But what do you know; the Devil’s a great hugger.”

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, if anyone happened to look up the tiny Dominican community situated in the hills near Los Angeles, they would find the following entry:

> _ Community of the Lightbringer, formerly Community of Tau-Rho. Dedicated to spreading the word of the Lord and to clearing the name of the Lightbringer. Visiting hours weekdays 1 to 3 pm. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, seems like there's at least two more ends to tie up, so this isn't the end of this series. I hope you liked this part, though.
> 
> Thank you to all my lovely readers, commenters, and kudo-givers. You guys are awesome (even though self-worth should come from within).


End file.
